$300 Travel: The Cheap and Wild Side of Bakersfield
 

I guess NPR is starting a series on cheap travel you can do with your stimulus check - next stop Bakersfield

Just what I want to do on my vacation! I love this part though;
"At the fight-filled race track and junk stores, a traveler learns an important lesson."

Sounds like a great way to spend your $300, on fights and junk stores. I wonder what the next one will be?!

Actually, there used to be some very good antique stores in Bakersfield.....

I just listened to the one on Primm Nevada:

On that same theme, AAA's Westways magazine has an article on the joys of parking your RV overnight in the parking lot of a Fresno area Wal Mart.

Vegas is only 30 minutes or so from Primm.

Then again if a gambler coming in over state line can't wait another hour they may want to rethink their choices in past times.

Primm is good for food and restrooms. And a little shopping - but the outlet mall pretty much sucks.

Saying that Bakersfield has a cheap "side" implies that there's a "not cheap" side to it. Which is LIES.

Depends on whether yuou mean "cheap" as in "inexpensive", or "cheap" as in "tacky".

Nah: I think it applies either way.

There are some very expensive homes in Bakersfield. Oil money...

Yeah, but even if you put a pretty bow on a pile of crap, you still live in Bakersfield.

I think we need to put together our own $300 vacations

I like Primm, because I can request (and get) a room with a rollercoaster view. :)

My $300 vacation involves going to Anthropologie.

I used to be able to go to Vegas on $300.

Now you can almost drive there for $300

I still can.

Unless I plan on staying longer than 15 minutes

I've been meaning to post about my recent $300 trip to India. I visited a few weeks ago in a short afternoon. I wandered the shops, bought some textiles and a Shiva statue, looked in the window of a grocer and a sweets store, came close to buying a sari and happily wandered among the Indians, listening to the lovely language being spoken all around me. It was a wonderful trip and I highly recommend it. Oh, and I was home in time for dinner.

There is actually a hotel in San Diego that is relatively inexpensive. I think it is a fancy 'hostel'. I think.

here is a hostel link http://www.sandiegohostels.org/ but not the place I was directed to.

This is it http://www.500westhotelsd.com/ .

It actually looks pretty nice. What is sort of shocking is that the prices seem high but with other hotel prices in Downtown, they probably aren't.

So....one could do San Diego on $300. Enjoy the free touristy places, ride the ferry early in the a.m. {before 8:30} and get a free return ticket {commuters, they don't ask} . There is a selection of museums free on Tuesdays........I mean, it can be done. Carpool and that saves gas and gas money. ;0)

Coming in under budget in Wisconsin ...
 

I love the concept of a $300 silk-purse-from-sow's-ear trip. Since I have to go to the Milwaukee Airport, I'm incorporating a sidetrip to beautiful downtown Oshkosh, Wisconsin. You can figure out the gas (about 4 hours highway driving roundtrip in a Jeep that gets about 21 mpg highway).

First stop: The Paine Art Center and Gardens for their French Impressionists exhibit and a walk around their gardens. Admission for family of four: $18.

Next up: the authentically 1950's Ardy & Ed's Drive In for my rootbeer and hamburger delivered to the Jeep by a rollerskating waitress. Estimated lunch bill for family of four: $25

Unbuttoning our waistbands, we roll a total of 1/2 a mile to Hughes Homaid Chocolate Shop for a homaid chocolate or two. Estimated cost for four pieces of chocolate: let's say $5. We could windowshop at the divine architectural salvage shop after. Cost: nothing.

Suitably fortified, we are ready to face the Milwaukee Airport Hotel to rest up for an early morning flight. Add dinner at whatever Applebee's/Denny's-type restaurant for four and you're looking at upwards of $160

It's just a pity they were all grocery stores....